During a special meeting on June 25, the board approved a one-year contract, typical of small library districts. Tessman will make $135,000, earn 20 hours of vacation time per month and receive $10,000 for moving expenses.

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Tessman, 59, comes to Fort Vancouver after 30 years of working for public libraries in rural and urban settings. Most recently, she worked as executive director in Salt Lake City for 11 years. She retired from that position in 2007 — she had recently married and wanted time to travel with her husband. They have grown children who live in Oregon.

She thinks of her brief retirement as more like a sabbatical. “I wasn’t stepping away from libraries forever,” she says. “They’re a pretty important part of who I am.” pical of small library districts. Tessman will make $135,000, earn 20 hours of vacation time per month and receive $10,000 for moving expenses.

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…in the next two months, the library district will roll out its first “express library” in Yacolt. The district is renting a small space that will hold approximately 1,000 books. The building will be unstaffed, and patrons will check out books on the honor system.

Tessman thinks it will be important to constantly emphasize how libraries can help support communities and individuals during rough economic times. “The challenges that libraries face right now are enormous, there is no question,” Tessman says. “We are going to see some changes, but I really deeply believe that libraries are going to be thriving in the future.”

Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.